If you’re a service-based business owner, I’m sure you’ve heard that you need to have a client workflow (or client process) in place. But I’m willing to bet that you might not know what that means. Today I want to go back to basics and explain exactly what a client workflow is, and how it can help your overall client experience!

Essentially, a client workflow is just walking you through every stage of your client process. It ensures that you are hitting all of your deadlines and deliverables every time, and never missing a step.

Having a client workflow is essential because it:

- Saves you time and money- Gives the client a professional experience- Helps you deliver a consistent experience for every client

Here’s what a sample client workflow might look like:

Potential client fills out inquiry form on your website

You schedule a complimentary, 20 minute discovery call to see if you and the client are a good match

After the discovery call, you send the client their contract and invoice

Client signs the contract and pays the invoice

You onboard the client into your project management software

You send the client a questionnaire that helps you with xyz deliverables

Client sends the completed questionnaire back

You start working on their deliverables

Two weeks later, you send the first deliverables

Client sends you their revisions

You revise the deliverables, send for a second round of revisions

So on and so forth.

As you can see, the workflow itself isn’t that complex! You’re really just outlining everything that you do when you provide a service and then making a checklist for every client project.

Taking the time to figure out what your client workflow looks like may seem like a useless up-front investment of time, but I promise that it will pay off when you’re juggling five or more clients at a time and you need to know exactly where all of them are in the process!

Because following a system that you’ve already figured out ahead of time means you’re being as efficient with your time as possible, you’re not working more hours than the scope of the project covers and thus losing money, and your client will feel confident that you are a professional and that everything they need will be taken care of.

Do you have a client workflow in your business already? If not, what is stopping you from creating one? Let me know in the comments!